Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Lord Cryer (Labour), on Thursday, 8 June 2000, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 59 members in total.

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BENEFITS AGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

That this House congratulates the Social Security Select Committee on its report on the operation of the Benefits Agency medical services, which concludes that the system in place is guilty of penalising claimants unfairly and leads to benefits being withheld from genuine cases; further notes the report's conclusion that Sema Group Limited, which runs BAMS, is cutting costs at the expense of service, resulting in undeserving claims going undetected whilst genuine cases are overlooked; is aware that welfare groups estimate many genuinely disabled people could be losing up to ??70 or ??80 per week; is concerned that amongst the major criticisms are that consultations with doctors are rushed through without the proper checks, that some doctors are not performing to adequate standards and that the medical service could be guilty of institutional racism in its treatment of ethnic minorities; and calls on the Benefits Agency urgently to review decisions made by doctors known to be underperforming, and on ministers to renegotiate the contract with BAMS to bring real improvements in service to the public.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

826 

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Medical examinations Social security benefits Standards Benefits Agency Medical Service

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk